A commentary on rabbinic texts and toxicality

September 14, 2005

Bottle recycling program defended in Israeli court

Israel's "Bottle recycling consortium to continue" reports Haaretz. Yesterday an antitrust court decided to allow a specially-authorized monopolistic consortium to continue collecting returned bottle because dismantling the consortium would harm public interests. Read the whole story, which also noted:

"The organization Adam Teva V'Din [Israel Union for Environmental Defense], which joined the judicial proceedings as a respondent, announced yesterday that the court had acknowledged the importance of the Deposit Law and its implementation. However, the organization added that the law needs to be amended to oblige beverage manufacturers and importers to collect bottles actively, and to cover 1.5 liter bottles." Having drafted Israel's bottle bill in 1999, IUED seeks to improve the program (eg automatic deposit machines).

The first bottle bill passed in Oregon in 1971, pioneering one of the most effective methods of material recycling and reuse. As in Israel, U.S. environmentalists have struggled against bottling companies and retailers to expand the scope of the law, e.g. to cover bottled water.